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AFA ActivismAction Alert - February 12, 20017UP Defends Nudist Colony Television CommercialPolitely tell Ms. Dworkin that this ad should be immediately pulled from their 2001 advertising campaign.
Dear AFA Action Alert Member, We appreciate the many of you who responded to the Action Alert of January 29 - 7Up Airs Nudity During Super Bowl Festivities - and contacted Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. with your concerns. Unfortunately, Philippa Dworkin, Vice President of Corporate Communications for 7Up, told AFA the 15-second ad would run for the next 12 months. Ms. Dworkin added, “The whole theme is we have this bumbling, silly marketing executive, that comes up with all these off-the-wall ideas of how to promote 7Up. So he turns up at a nudist colony because he figures there’s a lot of people there, and he’s gonna try to sell them 7Up.” According to Beverage Digest, a publication that covers the soft-drink industry, the new 7UP advertising campaign is targeted to reach 12 - 24 year olds. Due to a slump in sales in recent years the new ads promised to be "edgier" and "more youth oriented." The nudist colony ad is the latest in this series and incorporates the perjorative slogan that is the theme of the campaign, "Up Yours." One AFA Alert member shares her excellent letter to 7 UP and their response: Dear AFA Alert: I had sent a letter to DPSU regarding this commercial and had received an automatic email response from them. A hard copy letter arrived today. I thought you might be interested in their response. I think I'm more perturbed now than I was before. The first patch is my letter to them (emailed), the second is the text of their response. I intend to respond to this and to continue our boycott of their products. Thanks for the heads-up! Sue Stenberg Tulsa, OK We are a 7-member family who have been cheerful consumers of your products for over 20 years. In particular, my 18-yr-old daughter and I have Dr. Pepper as our beverage of choice, my two sons usually opt for your root beer, and my husband is very fond of Canada Dry ginger ale. If someone in the house comes down with the flu, it's not Sprite or store-brand lemon-lime that comes home from the store, but it is 7-Up...nothing else seems to settle the tummy quite as well. We were enjoying the Super Bowl game on Sunday night, with our 11-yr-old son, 9-yr-old daughter and 16-yr-old daughter in the room. We were appalled, offended, embarrassed, and angry that our we and our children were confronted with a soft drink advertisement featuring nudity. The masking DIDN'T do a thing to deflect our young children's attention from the fact that the people in the ad were unclothed. Here we thought we would be able to enjoy an American tradition with our children, have some popcorn and soda, and cheer on the players. Your tastelessness ruined the evening...we flipped away from the game for quite a while, and when we did go back to it in the 2nd half, we were on guard the entire time to prevent a recurrence...lots of fun THAT was! If this is what your company thinks it takes to sell a soft drink, then I guess we will be switching to Mr. Pibb, Barq's root beer, store brand gingerale, and Pedialyte! I am so sorry that you had so little taste, consideration and common sense. If I find that this ad campaign has been scrapped...then maybe we can return to our favorites. At this point, your sodas have more taste than your ad executives...and I don't think the execs need any money from our pockets to reward them for their deficiencies! Their response: Thank you for contacting us about the 7UP Nudist Colony television commercial, which is part of our 2001 advertising campaign. We are always interested in hearing from our consumers. We regret that you found Nudist Colony offensive, because that was certainly not our intent. Our 2001 campaign continues the highly successful and popular humor-based advertising that began in late 1999. 7 UP commercials, including Nudist Colony, have been cleared by the networks for airing and are being shown on age-appropriate programming for the teenage and young adult consumers we are trying to reach. Your comments about Nudist Colony will be taken into consideration when we evaluate current 7 UP advertising and when we develop future campaigns. Thank you again for sharing your views with us. Consumer Relations AFA Director of Communications Allen Wildmon, who reviewed the commercial after receiving complaints, said he was extremely disappointed. “If fuzzying the image means the people aren’t really naked, then the people would’ve been clothed to begin with,” Wildmon said. “But 7Up wanted to shock the viewer with nudity, despite the fact that many people could be watching with children in the room.” Wildmon added that one comment in the ad, obviously made as a double entendre, was very “crude.” A trio of naked women pass the nude man hawking the soft drink, and give him the once over, while one woman says suggestively, “Nice package.” “I don’t know anyone who refers to a can of soda as a ‘package,’ so the crude double meaning is clear,” he said. “It is sad that a company like 7Up is so consumed by greed that it could care less if kids see and hear such things,” said Wildmon. “This company is selling a soft drink, for goodness sake. Do they want us to believe that you can’t possibly sell a soft drink without shocking the viewer with nudity and making crude remarks? What does nudity and have to do with a soda?” ACTION NEEDEDPlease contact Philippa Dworkin, Vice President of Corporate Communications for 7UP and express your dismay over the message of this ad targeted to our young people. Politely tell Ms. Dworkin that this ad should be immediately pulled from their 2001 advertising campaign. Ask Ms. Dworkin to notify Seven UP President and CEO Doug Tough that you will not be purchasing DPSU products until you are notified that the ad has been pulled. Advise Ms. Dworkin that you will also be encouraging family and friends to boycott DPSU products.A subsidiary of confection and beverage giant Cadbury Schweppes, DPSU mixes up more than a dozen beverage brands, including its namesake brands (and their diet companions), A&W and I.B.C. root beers, Canada Dry, Sunkist, Schweppes, Squirt, Vernors, and Welch's. Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. Philippa Dworkin, Vice President Corporate Communications 5301 Legacy Dr. Plano, TX 75024-3109 Phone 972-673-7691 Phone (Toll Free) 1-800-696-5891 Fax 972-673-7867
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